Understanding those mysterious Catholics.By Raymond ArroyoThe Catholic vote is a bit like an apparition of the Virgin Mary. It is a clear article of faith to some, a murky delusion to others. Nevertheless, this block of 67 million Americans is crucial to electoral victory and a prime target for both political parties this season. Pity that they don?t really understand what motivates these voters or how the messages they send out are being interpreted by Catholics.
Admittedly they are a mysterious lot, a group that is neither monolithic nor partisan. At present 49 percent of Catholics are Democrats while 40 percent are registered Republicans. A portion of these voters are known to swing wildly in presidential elections. This year they represent a third of voters in do or die battleground states like Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. On the whole Catholic voters are offended by injustice, have a reflexive concern for the poor, and are committed to protecting life in varying degrees. Despite their diversity, there are cultural characteristics of Catholic voters that for whatever reason have been largely ignored or underappreciated by the two major political parties. Here are a few that I have observed in my travels and during conversations with Catholics across the country:
The Madonna Complex: The veneration of the Virgin Mary in Catholic practice has uniquely prepared the Catholic people, men and women, to warmly accept female leadership. Not just any leader mind you, but a leader who is at once nurturing and firm: a mother. This is one of the reasons Hillary Clinton trounced Obama 59 percent to 41 percent among Catholic voters in the Pennsylvania primary. It is also why Sarah Palin has caused such a sensation among Catholic woman, even self-described Democratic women. She represents an underground feminism that has long existed but is seldom celebrated. When I recently asked a bi-partisan group of Catholic women in California if they felt that Sarah Palin was like them, I was loudly corrected. ?She IS us,? they said.
?Stained Glassers?: If Evangelicals are ?people of the Book,? Catholic voters are ?people of the look.? Far beyond what they hear or read, Catholics have a keen sensitivity to what they observe and intuit firsthand. I believe this is a natural outgrowth of Catholic worship where gesture, image, and tonality are as important as language. Like people staring at stained glass windows, they watch candidates looking for sensibilities similar to their own. One of Bill Clinton?s Catholic outreach gurus once told me that even though his candidate could not connect with Catholic voters on the issues, he could, with image and lingo slowly create a ?mosaic? pleasing to Catholics. Clinton handily won the Catholic vote. This helps explain the fascination and attachment that so many Catholics across the country feel for Sarah Palin after seeing her give exactly one speech. They appreciated the grit of her talk in St. Paul, but it was the image of the candidate and her family, particularly the way she caressed her Down syndrome baby, Trig, that left an indelible mark on Catholics. This impression has already shown itself in the polls. How long Palin can preserve it depends on what she does in the days ahead.
Sheep Watch Their Shepherds: The term ?Bimbo Eruptions? became common parlance in Washington during the Clinton administration, but this season, at least for Catholic voters, the term ?Bishop Eruptions? might be more appropriate. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden, both Catholics, dragged the issue of abortion into the presidential race a few weeks ago. After publically misrepresenting Catholic teaching on when life begins, the pols were reprimanded by no less than 30 bishops, some even inviting Pelosi and Biden to refrain from communion. In spite of efforts to finesse the issue, the skirmish reminded Catholics that the bishops consider abortion a ?foundational? issue. It also revealed how far removed the Democratic party?s position on abortion is from that of the Church. For Catholics who attend Mass each week the defense of human life is the preeminent issue. This is one of the reasons why McCain enjoys a 16-point lead in the latest Pew poll among church-going Catholics. I was shocked to learn during my travels that even a month after the fact, many Catholics are just now becoming aware of the ?bishop eruptions.? A man in Ohio told me: ?these politicians are trying to distort Church teaching for their own ends.? One woman in Denver said she thought it was an attempt to ?topple the bishop?s authority.? The sheep still follow their shepherds. To run afoul of them this political season is a profound error.
The real swing voters in this election will be the Easter/Christmas Catholics ? those who infrequently attend church, but consider themselves in the fold. They too will be influenced by the cultural tug of the faith described above. How to capitalize on the inherent tendencies of Catholic voters will be for the candidates to discover. But it will take real savvy and sensitivity to win over this block ? and a few novenas couldn?t hurt.
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Raymond Arroyo, the news director at Eternal Word Television Network, is a New York Times
best-selling author and the editor of Mother Angelica?s Private and Pithy Lessons From the Scriptures (Doubleday).
